Review: ‘Rosa And Cornelia’

Respectable playing by actress Stefania Rocca is almost the only reason to watch "Rosa and Cornelia," an overheated, borderline silly costumer about a countess and a country girl who spat and bond while going through pregnancy together. Commercial chances outside Italy look stillborn.

Respectable playing by actress Stefania Rocca is almost the only reason to watch “Rosa and Cornelia,” an overheated, borderline silly costumer about a countess and a country girl who spat and bond while going through pregnancy together. Commercial chances outside Italy look stillborn.

Cornelia (Chiara Muti), a mid-18th-century Venetian countess about to be married, is locked up by her parents in their country home to hide the fact that she’s preggers from a secret fling. Rosa (Rocca), a feisty peasant girl, is hired as a companion; she happens to be pregnant as well. Socially worlds apart, the two femmes eventually find common ground — and then the family’s dastardly plan, overseen by Cornelia’s wet-nurse (veteran Athina Cenci), clicks in. The elaborate plot makes no sense at all, and relationships and dialogue are thoroughly theatrical (it’s based on a play by Remo Binosi). Direction is uninflected and lensing flat.

Rosa And Cornelia

Italy

Production

A Lantia Cinema & Audiovisivi release of a Gierre-Film Tre production. Produced by Grazia Volpi. Executive producer, Sandro Frezza. Directed by Giorgio Treves. Screenplay, Remo Binosi, Francois de Maulde, Treves, based on the play "Expecting" (L'attesa) by Binosi.